Last Defender of Earth
by Witchy Bee
Summary: The TARDIS thinks there is a video the Doctor needs to watch, and a woman he needs to meet. He pays a visit to Gwen Cooper post-Children of Earth.


"What are you doing now?" the Doctor wondered out loud. With no companion around, he'd begun talking to the TARDIS more frequently. Anything to fill the silence. Now she was acting strangely; taking off without any coordinates specified by him. "I don't even get the illusion of control anymore, then?"

The screen suddenly changed, and he found himself looking at a fuzzy recording of a human woman. The room in which this video had been filmed was dark, so he could only see half of her pale face, but the Doctor did see her eyes...

"There's one thing I always meant to ask Jack, back in the old days," she began. He noted her thick Welsh accent and how her voice resonated with forced calm. "I wanted to know about that Doctor of his. The man who appears out of nowhere and saves the world, except sometimes he doesn't. All those times in history when there was no sign of him; I wanted to know why not. But I don't need to ask anymore. I know the answer now. Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame. I'm recording this in case anyone ever finds it so you can see..." The woman paused, and he thought his hearts might break. "You can see how the world ended."

The video ended. For the first time in many, many years he was completely speechless. Whoever this woman was, she knew Jack and she knew at least a little about him. Worst of all, she thought he had abandoned Earth out of shame. There were times when humanity tested his patience and faith, but the Doctor would never turn away while innocent people suffered.

The TARDIS had landed without him noticing. He stepped outside, looking around.

This was Earth. Wales, specifically. Ah...

"Okay, old girl, I think I've got the hint."

)O(

"Yes? What do you want?" Gwen Cooper demanded upon opening her front door. A man stood there looking sheepish, hands shoved into the pockets of his brown trench coat.

"Hello! You're Gwen Cooper, aren't you?"

"Who wants to know? Sorry, but if you're selling something, I really haven't got time for this. I've got a newborn and she's only just fallen asleep, so if you'll excuse me..."

"I'm not a salesmen, I'm...well, it's a bit complicated, but we have a mutual friend. I believe you know Jack Harkness?"

That got her attention. "Come in."

"Thank you," he said, smiling. "I'm the Doctor, by the way."

Gwen froze. She continued to stare at him after he'd taken a seat on the sofa.

"Jack's Doctor?" she whispered, disbelief evident in her voice. What had she been expecting?

"Well, you could say that. Or in your own words I'm 'the man who appears out of nowhere and saves the world,' except sometimes I don't." He found it difficult to meet her eyes. "You were right. Sometimes I can't."

"So you saw the video," Gwen said. "Where exactly were you when the world ended, Doctor?"

"Oh, Gwen Cooper," the Time Lord sighed. "That wasn't the end of the world; I've seen the end of the world. I'm sorry, I really am, but some points in time are fixed, especially those surrounding our friend Jack."

"How do you know him?" she asked.

"We traveled together briefly."

"When? Where did you go?"

"To the stars, the end of the universe," he whispered. "It was a lifetime ago now. 1941, I met Jack, during the Blitz. Everyone believed that was the end of the world, too."

"You sound just like him. Cryptic answers."

They both laughed. The Doctor rather liked her. She was strong and kind. Jack picked his friends well.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know," Gwen admitted, becoming serious once more. "After the 456...he was so broken. He said this planet's too small, and he just sort of...went up into the sky. I begged him to stay. Funny, for some reason I thought I'd see him again when my daughter was born. Don't know why."

"He ran away," the Doctor stated. She heard not a hint of judgement or shame in his voice. If anything he seemed...guilty. "When you live so long and lose so much, sometimes that's all you can do. I've been running all my life."

Gwen couldn't fully understand, and he hoped she never would, because maybe it was the curse of the immortal and nearly immortal. You watched people die while the world kept turning. Good and bad things happened and in the end, at a time when it truly mattered, there's nothing you could possibly do to change it. It's history. It's already happened somewhere.

"I think you'll see him again."

"Why?"

"Because running away tends to bring you right back where you started." Part of her wanted to know how he came to that conclusion, but decided it was probably better not to ask.

"I just don't know what to do anymore without Torchwood. We're defenseless now, all of us."

The Doctor shook his head. "You are never defenseless. Besides, Torchwood is one of those pesky little things that carries on through history. That's a great word, pesky. Pesky, pesky, pesky..."

Gwen watched this strange man, the man who saved them all so many times, and blamed himself when he couldn't. Jack would no doubt die for this man over and over, because he respected the Doctor, perhaps even loved him. How had she allowed herself to assume he was up there among the stars watching as humanity prepared to sacrifice its own children to some bloody alien junkies? He'd come all this way just to explain that he would save them even if they didn't deserve to be saved. It must kill him when the choice isn't his to make at all. Maybe more so when it is.

From the other room, Anwen started to fuss. Gwen excused herself and when she returned a moment later with the baby in her arms, he had already gone.


End file.
